Going to Mars: Triple Header for Frame 14

Another late April weekend, another Frame. This weekend I went through essentially a triple-header of events and wanted to make a little writeup to organize my thoughts about them. Maybe some ramblings too.

First event: CR Clash #95

Pretty run of the mill clash for me, seeded myself below alright, Full Synchro, and Spades. Had a mini peach gauntlet at the beginning playing BunsenBurn and then Pho Shiz (man, it’s really cool to actually have peaches showing up again!!

CR used to be a peach desert and now we actually have a couple around) before facing alright in winner’s semis. I have some trouble with her sheik, but have taken a set before so I’m not completely hopeless.

This time it was a 3-0 for her and I dropped into losers to fight BartSimpson1738. This was game 5 and I very much attribute to a combination of his punish game improvements and me just doing super lazy shit defensively. Doublejumping into his knee at ledge, not spacing up-b properly, just really sloppy stuff. Managed to clutch it out but I’m a little disappointed at how poorly I was playing vs falcon.

After that I fought Full Synchro, and while I had some good moments, it was also a 3-0.

We got food at Naughter’s afterwards (their chopped cheese is so tasty, highly recommend), and had a lot of fun just bullshitting as usual. Several people (who I will NOT be naming) were gatekeeping me from the Pokemon Go gym that was near us and while I kept trying to fight them off, (I am on team mystic and they were all on team valor) I thought it was pretty funny.

Overall, a pretty good event. Had to get off to bed for the next day, and a 3.5hr drive to Rochester.

Second event: The Prowling Grounds #93

After getting to my sister’s apartment in Rochester around 5:30pm, I caught up with her for a little bit before leaving for TPG.

I ended up ordering food online and despite doing that before leaving the apartment, it was still not ready when I got there, so I got to RIT a little later than 6:30, when the bracket was supposed to start. The building the tournament was in was actually connected to another building, so I unknowingly entered the other building. I ended up finding an elevator up to the 4th floor, which is where I was told the tournament was being held, but after not seeing the correct room number I was incredibly confused.

After walking around a little more, I found an elevator that labeled the floor I was on as 4R.

R??????????

Turns out I was in the wrong building, and I took the elevator up to the 4th floor of the correct building.

Made it to the bracket and had to sit down for my first match immediately against Ashes (PapaJohnsOfficail). Was a pretty convincing 2-0, despite Yoshi/Marth being… a matchup.

I then had to fight Conceit’s sheik, and since I was still not really warmed up, I dropped game 1 by running into a lot of tilts and aerials. I pulled it together and brought it home with some pretty good combos.

That win set me up to play ayeGiohh to qualify for Top 8 winners side, which was a bit of a wash >_< but I really can’t be mad, Gio is a certified grinder.

Dropped into losers, I had to unfortunately stop ArStar’s losers run at 3 sets. Into top 8 on loser’s side, I had to face LordTet which was close at times, but certainly not close at other times. Tet is a beast though and I really can’t be mad about losing to him and Gio for 7th.

We ended up going to Just Chikn with a bunch of people, and I had a great time hanging out with the rochester homies.

The Main Event: Frame 14

With that, it was time to head back and get as much sleep as possible for the main event, Frame 14.

I started off the day with breakfast, meeting up with SwebBy and Tsunami, and later being joined by Tet, Jboss, Azul, and Ashes. Had a pretty good breakfast sandwich (thank you swebby for finding it for me on the menu LOL) and then I headed over to the venue.

I had to look this up between PGStats and challonge, but Frame 14 was actually my sixth time attending Frame!! (it will not be the last)

My original plan was to enter 64 singles alongside Melee, but when I got there I decided I wasn’t really feeling it and wanted to focus on one game, which I think was probably the best call for me. I’m not great at multigaming at events, probably never will be.

Every single one of the wiis I brought (9) got put to use, which really goes to show just how many people there were, warranting that many setups. Was very happy that I was able to help provide equipment again, since I have it and it’s fairly easy for me to bring. (if you’re running an upstate event that I’m going to and want me to bring them please shoot me a dm and I’ll see what I can do :3)

Once brackets were finalized, my path looked like the following:

Seed-wise I was supposed to lose to Joey Bats in winners quarters and then make it to the top 16 qualifier and lose to SwebBy. It most certainly did not go down like that. My first match (round 2 winners) was against Ethan, a pretty solid fox from Rochester who I got to meet and talk to at dinner after TPG the previous night. I won that, and then had to wait for Mr. Bats to be out of doubles to progress the pool along. I asked Jank for some ness warmup (few know the legend of SecretSauce69, but I sure as hell do..) and they were able to give me a couple games before they had to go play doubles (also holding up my pool xD).

I lost pretty bad to joey but honestly I can’t really be concerned because he’s up there as far as ness mains go. Dropping into losers I had to wait for Jank to get out of doubles, but then after waiting for losers to progress I fought NotChrisFarley (another Rochester fox) who I beat pretty handily with a 2-0. After that I had Schmoopypotato, who just made a fairly impressive upset over magnumgunn3r (36 seed > 28 seed) to make it to me.

Since it was the marth ditto, it was fairly volatile. I’ve seen Schmoop play before on stream and while it wasn’t against marth, I had an idea of how he likes to handle certain scenarios. I ended up getting a 2-0 and we both had some very good punish strings along the way. Schmoop’s last stock was a very unfortunate SD where he edgecanceled the knockback and airdodged offstage when trying to tech.

This was where things got a little weird. I was now faced with a top 16 qualifier against not SwebBy, who I was originally seeded against, but alright. SwebBy beat her to make winners side top 16, dropping alright into my path to qualify for losers top 16. I could tell pretty early on in the set that she was not playing her best, and the player matchup that’s usually very lopsided in her favor was suddenly looking very good for me.

I was feeling a little conflicted taking the win in the way that I did, but after talking with some people about it after being congratulated I accepted that shit happens, and as a competitor I have to concern myself with my own performance and not how my opponent is feeling. I also think there’s a pretty decent chance we both go to Clash on thursday and she beats me again. Who knows until it happens.

While I was a little bit emotionally conflicted, I did make top 16! Now I was set to fight Quiggles. I was already aware of how good he was, and I could tell immediately that I was outmatched. It was a quick 3-0, where I went FoD game 3 after losing FD game 2 just to try out something new. Nothing too noteworthy, but I didn’t really care at that point because I outplaced my seed.

After being knocked out of bracket I ended up going to get food with alright, Minerva, and Spades. Got a cheesesteak from Dogtown, which was enough to get me through the rest of the event. Had a fun time hanging out with the s-tier homies that we saw while we were there, and then headed back to the venue (I was subjected to 15 minutes of banana discourse..)

There was an after-party so I pulled up for some good vibes :3 I had a lot of fun hanging out and talking with people and getting to catch up, especially with Avie and Blooky <3

Final thoughts:

Upstate Melee is fucking sick and getting to see people is so great, genuinely so thankful for anyone who was willing to hang out and chat, if even for a few moments. Doing well in bracket is only the cherry on top of a fantastic event experience.

Thanks to Silo, ArStar, Bobakanoosh, Eclipse, Plum, Eri, Tsunami, Higgins, and the rest of the crew for holding it down this weekend.

thanks to Grab @dthrowdtilt for the inspiration, organizing my thoughts is pretty cool lol